NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending September 15, 2026

● The Tampa Bay Times reports that local and state advocates are demanding answers after the Times’ expose of the enormous scope and harm of hidden foster care in the region. From the story: 

[R]epresentatives from The Spring of Tampa Bay — which serves domestic violence survivors — said many of their clients had felt pressured into handing their children over to relatives. The Spring of Tampa Bay attorneys cited “grave concerns” that parents weren’t given a chance to get their own lawyers and struggled to get information about their cases and their rights.

● In The Washington Post, Lenore Skenazy, president of Let Grow, writes about the mother who was arrested – and convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor – for letting her five-year-old walk to a pond alone. She notes that surveys reveal that 

today’s high school freshmen have a fraction of the freedom that used to be given to first-graders. It’s little wonder they’re so anxious. 

In this week’s reminder that the horror stories go in all directions: 

● WFIE-TV in Evansville, Indiana, has a story about that case in which a mother’s three-year-old with major medical needs was taken from her because she let her 14-year-old babysit another of her children overnight. The foster parents allegedly did not know how to care for the three-year-old, contributing to his death. 

● From The Baltimore Sun concerning a child from Washington, DC placed in neighboring Prince George’s County, Maryland: 

The medical examiner’s office has ruled the death of a 14-month-old foster boy a homicide after a caregiver in Prince George’s County failed to seek medical attention when he fell ill, later dying of dehydration. 

The county’s State’s Attorney’s Office said it continues to investigate the Feb. 9 death of Dereon Kai Booze for possible criminal charges. …